The War Of Assasins
by Ak47 001
Summary: When Victor Hali gets lost in the desert,he is saved by a tribe of Fremen.But should he join them or go back to his loyal House Atreides?Please R&R!
1. Atreides Takeover

Sands  
  
By-AK47 001 Ak47001@email.com No, I'm not Edric_O, if that's what you're thinking)  
  
I don't own Dune, but I wish I could, and yadyadyada  
  
Victor Hali ran to his ornithopter as the alarm sounded. Victor was a ornithopter pilot for House Atreides in this great War of Assasins.  
  
He was 22 years old, had spiked blue hair and blazing green eyes. He was tall for his age, about 6 feet, and weighed 157 lbs. Now, as he powered up the engines along with 9 other ornithopters, he asked himself, Is this the end of my life? Not only was there the danger of battle, but all the sandworms in the vicinity would respond to the thrumming of ornithopter engines if the orni's were to be shot down onto sand.  
  
Already Harkonnen pigs could be seen on the horizon, and turrets were powering up. He lifted his ornithopter slowly, it leaning forward ever so slightly,and then he took off with 9 other ornithopters, breaking the speed of sound. As he flew into battle, he was very cautious not to turn on his shield, because it would be suicide, considering that the Harkonnen pigs used lasguns.  
  
He started dropping his bomb payload on the Harkonnen base. It was engulfed in blazing white flames(Yes, white, you heard me right).Buildings crumpled like small pieces of paper,then erupting into blazing white flames. Already, 2 of his comrades had been shot down by Harkonnen batteries, and both ornithopters lay in the sand, blazing bright red, awaiting for a worm.  
  
After Victor managed to drop off all of his payload, he began to open fire with his machine gun. It wasn't much, but he destroyed a few tanks Harkonnen,and was moving on to Harkonnen Ornithopters. He saw a group of Devastators lurching towards him. He fired on them. One was destroyed by machine gun fire, 2 others from the Devastators explosion. Then he saw the ornithopter of his best friend, Cyril Xel, take a full on laser blast. It recoiled, then exploded into millions of tiny shards.  
  
Victor gasped .His best childhood friend, destroyed, never even knowing what was happening to him, just engulfed in flames. Victor gritted his teeth. Silently he took an oath that he would avenge his best friend.  
  
.....BAM......  
  
He felt something rock the back of his Ornithopter, then he began falling. He started a transmission to his remaining comrades, who were still fighting off the Hark forces with their small machine guns.  
  
"I am going down, repeat, going down! I shall activate the shields and make a kamikaze attack! Be wary of worms. I repeat, BE WARY OF WORMS!" And with that he ended his transmission.  
  
With the remaining power of his 'thopter, he managed to set it on a kamikaze course for a force of Harkonnen Devastators and Assault Tanks. Oh no,he wasn't going to kill himself, nah. Before he ejected, he was able to activate the shield generator, which attached to the small ornithopter like a leech and went down with it towards the group of vulnerable Devastators and Assault Tanks on the soft- but deadly-sand. He smiled a grim smile of satisfaction as he ejected out towards an rock out-cropping. 


	2. The Wait

Chapter 2  
  
Victor was flying-or so it seemed-threw the air, and he landed onto an outcropping of rock with an audible  
  
THUD!  
  
He un-strapped himself from the seat, and quickly armed himself with a MP530 submachine gun, an old Maula pistol, and set off quickly across the sands.  
  
He knew every step that he was in the danger of sandworms, but all the worms were focused on the battle raging out on the open sand, with explosions erupting everywhere and his shielded ornithopter still glowing brightly.  
  
He looked up, watching for any ornithopters. There were none, all shot down by treacherous Harkonnens.  
  
He ran faster and more determinedly. At long last he reached the Harkonnen base. There was barely anything left of it, but Victor managed to seize a barely standing barracks.  
  
As he stepped inside the barracks, he saw something that looked more like a bombed out bunker than anything else.  
  
Girders were sticking out in Victor's path, wires were everywhere, sparks were flying, and only a few shafts of light pierced through the wreckage. As he went through the practically destroyed barracks, he found a small circle of Harkonnen soldiers huddled around a small fire.  
  
He felt saddened at them like that, lonely and scared, but he had his orders.  
  
After that, he took over an outpost and transmitted to his Atreides comrades,  
  
"Harkonnen threat eliminated. Gun turrets captured. Spice silos captured. Requesting additional support for defense if we come under fire. I am the only one here now, and will not be able to hold if attacked."  
  
He put down the transmitter.  
  
Now it was just waiting. 


	3. Worm Attack!

Chapter 3 A few hours later the now Atreides base was bustling with activity.  
  
Harkonnen buildings-the ones that survived the initial bombing-were torn down, and replaced with blue Atreides buildings. The Harkonnen Gun Turret insignias were scrapped and replaced with Atreides insignias, and soon, a new base had been constructed.  
  
Victor was assigned Harvester protection duty during a spice mining operation.  
  
Pretty low rank,  
  
He thought to himself, as he HAD single handedly secured over a Harkonnen Barracks, Outpost, Gun Turrets, AND over 10,000 pounds of mélange!  
  
Pretty soon a worm came.  
  
It lunged after the Harvester, but it was too late. Since the harvester was gone, the worm went for the next best thing-Victor and his comrades. Many of the men started running away from the humongous worm, but a small band stayed, brave and loyal to their post.  
  
Their MP5O3's tore into the worm, not into solid, metal armor, but into soft, fleshy worm skin. But still, it kept coming. Luckily, Victor and his comrades were on rock, so the worm could not get them.  
  
They fired and fired, but nothing worked.  
  
Finally, Victor unclipped a grenade from his grenade and threw it at the worm which was only about 40 meters from him.  
  
It landed straight in the worm's mouth. Victor crouched low, waiting for the explosion.  
  
It came.  
  
Bits of blood and meat flew onto Victor, and soon he was engulfed by sand. 


	4. The Decision

Chapter 4  
  
Victor Hali woke up covered with sand. His visor was the only thing that kept the sand from leeching onto his face and choking him to death.  
  
Amazingly, though, a worm didn't come.  
  
Not one.  
  
Victor carefully started shifting around, trying to dig his way back to the top.  
  
It took him almost an hour to get up.  
  
But this wasn't the Harkonnen base the Atreides had taken over. It was the middle of no-where, with only a few out-croppings in the distance. Quickly he began to run to a rock outcropping.  
  
At least if he died, he would die fighting- against a worm, or Harkonnen, or Ordos.  
  
Soon he reached the rock out-cropping.  
  
But what he saw scared him.  
  
There were steps carved out on the rock. This brought a chill into his heart. He had heard of Fremen, the desert warriors. The ones who spilled and drank-or so it was rumored-the blood of their enemies.  
  
Suddenly something covered his eyes and choked him into unconsciousness. ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~  
  
When he woke up, a face with a beige hood over the head was staring at him.  
  
He had a grizzly black beard, and blue on blue eyes.  
  
Victor felt his heart skip a beat.  
  
These must be the Fremen.  
  
Victor thought quietly to himself.  
  
The Fremen were murmuring amongst themselves.  
  
"Do we spill his water?"  
  
"He could be a Harkonnen spy!"  
  
"No, look, he's Atreides!"  
  
And so the discussions continued, until the hooded man came back.  
  
"We have decided not to spill your water, as you are Atreides." He paused, and drew in a deep breath. "You have 2 choices-join our clan, or try to find your Atreides comrades. Of course, the latter is very dangerous. Once you leave the safety of rock, nothing prevents a worm from swallowing you whole, save the sacred spice blow."  
  
Victor tried to draw in what was happening.  
  
It was basically, join us or be eaten.  
  
He pondered that question for a while.  
  
He remembered that Fremen tribes were called sietches.  
  
"If I join your Sietch, will I ever be able to return to my House?"  
  
"No. Join or leave."  
  
"Can I stay at your Sietch, but not join it?"  
  
"Possible." A pause. "Or not."  
  
The Fremen had left him alone.  
  
Victor faced a heart-breaking choice.  
  
Either betray his House, or die.  
  
He finally came up with an answer.  
  
"I have decided.to stay at your Sietch, but not become a Fremen."  
  
Howls of anger were heard across the room.  
  
"No! It will just be 1 more water-fat pig to feed!"  
  
"Who authorized this?!"  
  
"No! He shall die!"  
  
Then the hooded man said in a deep voice,  
  
"SIIIIIILEEEEENCE!"  
  
Everyone turned and looked at him.  
  
"I have authorized this."  
  
Howls of outrage were heard at this, but he silenced them once again.  
  
Then he looked sternly over to Victor.  
  
"You do realize that, now that you have chosen this path, you will work extra hard, receive less water, and ride Shai-Hulud by yourself?"  
  
Victor didn't even know what a Shai-Hulud was, but lied.  
  
"I understand."  
  
"Then get a still-suit and get to work. Your work instructor will assign you your job."  
  
And with that he turned around and began eating. 


	5. Acceptance

Chapter 5  
  
Victor was given a plain stillsuit and was made to work the lowest of jobs - waste processor. He kept working till nighttime, when Kelik(That was the name of the man with the hooded face)came out.  
  
"You will be allowed to stop when the moon is high."  
  
Victor didn't understand this, but acted as if he knew.  
  
"You will continue this for a standard year, and then we will accept you in our sietch. But until then. You will labor."  
  
Kelik turned on his heel and walked away.  
  
Victor sighed and started working again. . .  
  
*********************************  
  
He was able to sleep only a few hours that night.  
  
As he arrived at the breakfast table, Victor found a small plate fashioned out of wood with some sort of slop on it, it didn't even have mélange in it!  
  
With a heaved sigh he picked up the spoon and began eating. *********************************  
  
As Victor worked, he noticed that the Fremen were fierce fighters, even the children.  
  
He had seen 2 Fremen boys playing with knives that Kelik had told him were called, "crysknives".  
  
One boy had torn a large gash in the other boy's arm, and Victor had expected the wounded boy to forfeit the match, but the child hadn't, just gritted his teeth.  
  
He was amazed at the Fremen dexterity.  
  
He stopped his daydreaming and went back to work. *********************************  
  
During the night, Victor lay on his back, thinking about what had happened.  
  
He remembered being covered with sand, but that was all.  
  
Also, he had heard of shifting sand, but he didn't take the seriously. Now he knew it was real.  
  
iHe turned over on his small cot and decided to go to sleep. No use in going to bed late and getting up tired in the morning/i  
  
He thought to himself. *********************************  
  
A year passed, and Victor still hadn't gotten word from his Atreides comrades.  
  
And now it was time for the acceptance ceremony. *********************************  
  
Victor went up to Kelik, who proceeded with the ritual, and in the end, Victor was given a crysknife, and accepted into the tribe.  
  
Now it was all the challenging stuff to do.  
  
His first task was to ride a worm-alone. . . 


End file.
